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Monday, June 20, 2016

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Gospel of Jesus's Wife Likely a Fake, Bizarre Backstory Suggests

A papyrus holding text that suggests Jesus Christ was married and whose authenticity has been a matter of intense debate since it was unveiled in 2012 is almost certainly a fake. Karen King, the Harvard professor who discovered the Gospel of Jesus's Wife and has defended its authenticity, has now conceded that the papyrus is likely a forgery and that its owner lied to her about the provenance and his own background. The concession comes after Walter Fritz, a resident of North Port, Florida, revealed that he is the owner of the papyrus that claims Jesus had a wife.

Paul Allen's space company nears debut of world's biggest plane

By Irene Klotz MOJAVE, Calif. (Reuters) - A space launch company bankrolled by Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen intends to compete with space entrepreneurs and industry stalwarts by launching satellites into orbit from the world's biggest airplane. Stratolaunch Systems, a unit of Allen's privately owned Vulcan Aerospace, last week gave a small group of reporters a first look at the nearly finished aircraft. With a wingspan of 385 feet (117 m), the six-engine plane will be larger than Howard Hughes' 1947 H-4 Hercules, known as the "Spruce Goose," and the Antonov An-225, a Soviet-era cargo plane originally built to transport the Buran space shuttle that is currently the world's largest aircraft.

Scientists battle to save world's coral reefs

HONOLULU (AP) — After the most powerful El Nino on record heated the world's oceans to never-before-seen levels, huge swaths of once vibrant coral reefs that were teeming with life are now stark white ghost towns disintegrating into the sea.

Solar plane takes on Atlantic as part of round-the-world bid

The spindly, single-seat Solar Impulse 2 left John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 2:30 a.m. EDT on a trip expected to take up to 90 hours, the 15th leg of its round-the-world journey. Swiss aviators Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg have been taking turns piloting the plane, which has more than 17,000 solar cells built into wings whose span exceeds that of a Boeing 747, with Piccard at the controls for the transatlantic flight. Solar Impulse 2 is due to land sometime on Thursday in Spain or France, with the precise location to be determined later depending on weather conditions, said Elizabeth Banta, a spokeswoman for the project team.

Myth Busted: Taking Photos Doesn't Ruin Your Experiences

The next time your friends roll their eyes when you're snapping a selfie or taking a photo of your dessert, tell them that according to new research, photographing everyday things can actually make people happier. For example, when people in the study took a virtual safari and watched a pride of lions attack a water buffalo, the people who took photos of the bloody event reported a lower enjoyment of the activity than those who didn't take photos, the researchers said.

Hang Glider Aims to Break Long-Distance Flight Record

A daring hang glider known for his extreme stunts and record-setting flights will soon attempt to set another record for the longest open-distance flight. On or soon after Monday (June 20), Jonny Durand will attempt to glide from Zapata, in southern Texas, to Lorenzo, in northern Texas, a distance of about 475 miles (764 kilometers). Aiding him on his journey — on (or around) the summer solstice, the longest day of the year — are what may be the most ideal atmospheric conditions for long-distance hang-gliding on Earth.

'Cosmic Watch' App Lets You Track Stars and Planets in Real Time

The app, named the Cosmic Watch, can tell you what the solar system was like when you were born, or set the scene for the next solar eclipse. The app provides a vivid view of the cosmos to show how time reflects our position in the solar system, said Markus Humbel, co-founder of the app. Along with his colleagues, he obtained data on planet movements from NASA and other organizations with open-source data, and incorporated information on gravity, planet size and planets' orbital paths into the Cosmic Watch.

When Lemurs Sing, Young Males Follow a Different Beat

Researchers have found that indris, a type of lemur native to Madagascar, are not only accomplished singers but also use rhythmic techniques when singing together to coordinate vocal performances and define their roles in the troop. Leaping Lemurs! Amazing Primates Roam North Carolina Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company.

ISIS Plays 'Evolutionary Game' to Avoid Online Shutdown

"We were interested in how support for particular extreme ideas or extreme organizations develops online, and then if we could understand that, what the implications would be for then what happens in the real world," study researcher and physicist Neil Johnson of the University of Miami told Live Science. In the new research, published today (June 16) in the journal Science, Johnson and his colleagues identified and studied 196 pro-ISIS aggregates, ad hoc online groups formed via linkage to a social media page. The researchers found that though the pro-ISIS groups consisted of members who have likely never met and have no direct way of contacting one another, the aggregates were able to mutate and reincarnate to avoid detection.

Sex with 2 Partners Before Marriage Raises Divorce Risk

"In short: If you're going to have comparisons to your husband, it's best to have more than one," study author Nicholas Wolfinger, a professor in the University of Utah Department of Family and Consumer Studies and an adjunct professor in the university's Department of Sociology, said in a statement. To see if the changing attitudes toward premarital sex affected the risk of divorce, Wolfinger looked at data from three waves of the National Survey of Family Growth, a survey on marriage and sexual behavior. The findings confirmed what many would believe by simply looking around: Women are much more likely to have premarital sex today than 50 years ago.

Frog Embryos Speed-Hatch to Escape Danger

A developing frog embryo in its jelly-like egg mass can be quite the escape artist: When predators come calling, the red-eyed tree frog embryo can detect the threat and drop out of its egg to safety in a matter of seconds, even though it normally wouldn't be ready to hatch for several more days. Karen Warkentin, study co-author and a biology professor at Boston University, reported the unusual behavior in red-eyed tree frog embryos in an earlier study published in 2005 in the journal Animal Behavior. Warkentin recorded the embryos' responses to different types of vibrations.

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Saturday, June 18, 2016

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Capsule carrying space station crew lands in Kazakhstan

A Soyuz capsule carrying a Russian, an American and a Briton from the International Space Station made a safe parachute landing on the steppe near the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan on Saturday. The three-man crew which includes Tim Peake, the first astronaut representing the British government, departed the station about three hours earlier after spending half a year in Earth's orbit. Alongside Peake, who smiled as he was being examined by flight surgeons, were commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra.

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Friday, June 17, 2016

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The Secret Behind Birds' Brainy Feats Revealed

The next time someone calls you a "bird brain," you may want to plant a big, fat kiss on their overgrown primate noggin. Inch for inch, birds cram more neurons into their pea-size brains than primates do, new research suggests. "For a long time, having a 'bird brain' was considered to be a bad thing: Now, it turns out that it should be a compliment," Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said in a statement.

Search for Another King Under a Parking Lot Begins

Nearly four years after the body of King Richard III was discovered under a parking lot, a new search is on for an English monarch under pavement. On Friday (June 10), archaeologists began a survey of the grounds of the long-closed Reading Abbey, the final resting place of King Henry I, who ruled England from 1100 to 1135. In order to image the subsurface, they relied on ground-penetrating radar (GPR), which uses reflected radar waves to reveal buried structures.

Centuries-Old Shipwreck Recreated with 3D Printing

Now, archaeologists in the United Kingdom are using 3D printing to bring two historical shipwrecks to life for history enthusiasts and experts alike. Using data from photogrammetry (measuring the distance between objects from photographs) and sonar imaging, the researchers have produced scale models of a 17th-century shipwreck near Drumbeg, in Scotland, and the remains of the HMHS Anglia, a steamship that was used as a floating hospital during World War I. "It was a proof of concept for us, trying to establish what could be done using sound and light, but there are so many different applications you could use this for," said maritime archaeologist John McCarthy, a project manager at Wessex Archaeology who carried out dives at the Scottish site and was in charge of producing the 3D models.

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Thursday, June 16, 2016

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Freaky! New Frog Mating Position Discovered

A new frog mating position, only the seventh type ever observed, has been discovered in the monsoonal forests of India. "Species such as the Bombay night frog, which are endemic to small regions (most often outside protected areas and threatened with anthropogenic activities), definitely require conservation prioritization," study leader Sathyabhama Das Biju, an amphibian researcher at the University of Delhi, told Live Science in an email. This made fieldwork a "very challenging experience," Biju said.

Mysterious Earthen Mounds Discovered in Ancient Cambodian Cities

Using airborne laser-scanning equipment, archaeologists have discovered vast fields of dome-shaped earthen mounds, arranged into gridded patterns, in 1,000-year-old Cambodian cities. The scientists are puzzled as to what these vast "dome fields" (as archaeologists sometimes call them) would have been used for around 1,000 years ago, calling them "the most enigmatic features" from this archaeological landscape. In addition to the dome fields, archaeologists also found mounds shaped into geometric patterns, such as spirals.

The Science of Mass Shooters: What Drives a Person to Kill?

Just days after a gunman opened fire in a gay club in Orlando, Florida, a complex and sometimes contradictory picture of his motivations is emerging. He called 911 during the attack to pledge allegiance to the jihadist group ISIS and its rival, the al-Nusra Front, according to the FBI. He was known to spew hatred against women, Jews, black people and gays, but apparently used gay dating apps and visited Pulse (the nightclub he would later attack) regularly for years, according to multiple people who knew him before the shooting.

Satellite tags aim to shed light on endangered hawksbill sea turtle migration

By Matthew Stock June 16 (Reuters) - Scientists are tagging hawksbill sea turtles in a key South Pacific breeding ground, hoping that information fed to satellites will help them better understand the endangered species' nesting, feeding and migration patterns. With Thursday marking World Sea Turtle Day, environmental organization Nature Conservancy said it and local conservation officers are carrying out the project in the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area in the Solomon Islands, the largest hawksbill rookery in the South Pacific. Turtle tagging is not new but a hawksbill satellite program on this scale has never previously been done in the Arnavons, Richard Hamilton of the Nature Conservancy said in a video release.

Apple's New App: Can Deep Breathing Lower Stress?

A new app from Apple coaches you through breathing exercises, but do these exercises really help reduce stress? This week, Apple announced a number of new features for the Apple Watch, including an app due out this fall called Breathe, which will "encourage users to take a moment in their day to do deep breathing exercises for relaxation and stress reduction," the company said in a statement. The watch can track a user's heart rate, and so at the end of a session, users will see a summary of their heart rate data, Apple said.

Procrastinators Beware: Insomnia Linked with Putting Things Off

People who procrastinate may be more likely to have insomnia, according to a new study. The new results show that sleep problems may be an important and overlooked outcome of procrastination, the researchers said in their study, which will be published in the October issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Sharks' Evening 'Rush Hour' Discovered

If sharks at the Pacific atoll of Palmyra used Google Maps, they'd see a lot of red dashes for traffic between 7 and 8 o'clock every evening. "Sharks are in trouble worldwide, so we need to be thinking about new tools and new technologies for studying them, and this one — which wasn't designed for scientific applications — worked very well," lead study author Douglas McCauley, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said in a statement.

High-Tech Toothbrush Corrects Common Brushing Errors

More commonly, people hold their toothbrushes perpendicular to their teeth and gums, said Alexander Kandemir, inventor of the new iBrush 365. The gums should make a tight seal with the teeth, but holding a toothbrush perpendicular to the teeth pushes the gums upward and makes them start to pull away, he added.

Get in the Action: 'Transformers' Director Tackles Virtual Reality

It looks like Michael Bay is jumping on the virtual reality bandwagon. The director, known for Hollywood blockbusters such as "The Rock," "Armageddon" and "Transformers," is joining forces with The Rogue Initiative, a production studio that specializes in creating interactive virtual reality experiences. The partnership was announced today (June 15), with Bay and the Los Angeles-based studio saying they will create immersive virtual reality (VR) content that blends traditional storytelling in filmmaking with action sequences that viewers will be able to experience up close with VR tech.

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